The early French explorers of the state gave it its name, which is probably a phonetic spelling for the French word for "downriver" people, a reference to the Quapaw Indians and the river along which they settled. Arkansas, which joined the Union in 1836, was the 25th state.

The current governor of Arkansas is Mike Huckabee[?], a Republican. Huckabee, who had been elected lieutenant governor in a 1993 special election, ascended to the governor's office when Governor Jim Guy Tucker[?], a Democrat, was convicted of felony mail fraud as part of the Whitewater Scandal[?]. This led to a state "Constitutional crisis" when Tucker refused to give up the governor's office for a short period of time, because the Arkansas Constitution does not allow a convicted felon to be governor of the state. Tucker had been lieutenant governor under Bill Clinton and had become governor as a result of Clinton's election to the presidency.

In Arkansas, the lieutenant governor is elected separately from the governor and thus can be from a different political party.

The capital of Arkansas is Little Rock. Arkansas is the only state in the US where diamonds are found naturally.

The eastern Arkansas border is the Mississippi River. Arkansas shares its southern border with Louisiana, its northern border with Missouri and Tennessee, and its western border with Texas and Oklahoma. Arkansas is a beautiful land of mountains and valleys, thick forests and fertile plains. The Ozark and Ouachita mountain ranges in northern and western Arkansas are known as the Highlands; the southern and eastern parts of Arkansas are called the Lowlands.

The state's total gross state product for 1999 was $64 billion placing Arkansas 33rd in the nation. Its Per Capita Personal Income for 2000 was $22,257, 47th in the nation. The state's argiculture outputs are poultry and eggs, soybeans, sorghum, cattle, cotton, rice, hogs, and milk. Its industrial outputs are food processing, electric equipment, fabricated metal products, machinery, paper products, bromine, and vanadium.